


Not Like in the Movies

by mklutz



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Fluffdown, M/M, Soul Bond, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-20
Updated: 2013-10-20
Packaged: 2017-12-29 22:39:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1010960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mklutz/pseuds/mklutz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maybe it was just Eric really getting into his new role as Captain, but it became a thing. <i>Their</i> thing. Every time Jeff felt that static hum building up inside him again it was like Eric could just tell, and he’d reach out and ground Jeff with a hand on his shoulder, or a headlock, or by bumping their knees together on the bench.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Not Like in the Movies

**Author's Note:**

> For the Fluffdown challenge on tumblr. Thanks to Twentysomething and The Hoyden for pushing me along and immediately saying "It's going to be Jeff Skinner and Eric Staal, right?" This was supposed to be 1k and then it wasn't. Be glad it's not like 30k.

Jeff had always been something of a romantic. Knowing that everyone had a soulmate out there, somewhere, it was hard to be cynical, but on top of that he had four sisters who were all _very_ interested in finding their soulmates, and it was hard not to get swept up in the idea. They’d made him sit through just about every soulmate romance ever, so at least he knew what to look out for: the overwhelming urge to be near someone, the instant recognition and synchronicity. 

At first Jeff figured he’d meet his soulmate skating. Pairs figure skaters who were bonded - that was Olympic gold material right there. But after giving up figure skating for hockey he shrugged off the idea and figured he’d play a few years, hopefully make it to an NHL team, get settled, get his life in order, and then be _ready_ to meet his soulmate.

He wasn’t expecting to fall face first into his lap his first day playing an actual NHL game.

“Oh god,” Jeff mumbled, heaving himself upright, that was his Captain he’d face-planted into. 

Eric gave him a bemused look. “Don’t worry about it,” he said with a smile. “Better to get your first game jitters out in the locker room before practice instead of on the ice.” 

He could feel his ears turning red, so Jeff ducked his head and mumbled a brief _sorry_. Even worse: his name was sharpied onto a piece of masking tape next to Eric’s stall. His ears were going to be red _forever_ and all of his skin felt tight, tingling with nerves. So much for not getting teased too much by the rest of the team. 

Bad enough to fall all over Eric his first day on the team, he didn’t need to develop an awkward crush on him, too, even if he was tall and blonde and kind of stupidly charming.

“Relax,” Eric said, “Just do your best and don’t be a dick to anyone and you’ll be fine.” 

And weirdly, he was. The crush wasn’t, though.

***

The skin-tight feeling didn’t go away though. Once he’d signed his contract he felt pretty safe, ready to find a place in Raleigh, ready to give everything he had to the team to prove he was worth it. He lit up the PNC Arena, but it felt like he was bursting at the seams during every practice and before every game.

He finally had an actual name plate on his stall but he was careful to give Eric lots of space when they got changed. His crush on Eric seemed to rile his nerves up even worse, especially if they were near each other, which happened with increasing frequency even in just the first few months of the season. 

Jeff stretched out his right leg and leaned forward to adjust his shin guards, accidentally knocking knees with Eric. He twitched and jerked his knee away, feeling something strange zip through him. 

Eric’s hands stilled for a minute where he had been tugging on the legs of his under armour. He reached out and squeezed Jeff’s knee and it was like the static, incessant hum inside him just _stopped_. Everything quieted down inside his head, settled. Jeff took a deep breath.

“Better?” Eric asked and Jeff huffed. 

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Any time,” Eric replied, and finished putting on his gear, but he kept an eye on Jeff the whole time. Jeff could feel it, like a solid weight keeping him steady and calm. It was nice.

***

Maybe it was just Eric really getting into his new role as Captain, but it became a thing. _Their_ thing. Every time Jeff felt that static hum building up inside him again it was like Eric could just tell, and he’d reach out and ground Jeff with a hand on his shoulder, or a headlock, or by bumping their knees together on the bench.

More often than not he’d find himself pressed knee to shoulder against Eric between shifts, in the locker room, at team dinners and video game nights. He slept better the nights he crashed on Eric’s shitty couch, which shouldn’t have been possible. 

“I think your couch is magic,” Jeff said one morning, hands wrapped around a mug as he waited for Eric to finish making their omelettes. “Seriously, I never sleep like that at home.” 

Eric snorted, turned off the stove, and slid both plates onto the table. “Eat your eggs, Skinner.”

He did, because Eric was some kind of omelette master, but that didn’t mean he had to stop talking. “Teach me your magic furniture secrets, Eric,” he said between bites. 

Eric glanced up at him, eyebrows raised, as he finished chewing and swallowed. “Are we talking about this now?”

“Talking about what?” Jeff asked. 

There was silence for a long moment as Eric just stared blankly at him. “The-- you know it’s not the couch, right?” He asked, setting down his fork. “Please tell me you paid attention in school.” 

Jeff looked suspiciously at his mug and then back to Eric. “I did fine? Sorry, I’m just-- not following you here.” 

Eric sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. “How do you feel right now?” He asked, standing up and coming around the table. Jeff tilted his head back to look at him. It wasn’t his fault Eric was a giant. 

“Pretty good,” Jeff said slowly. “Why?”

Eric settled his hands on either side of Jeff’s neck, thumbs stroking along the tendons down the back where it got tight sometimes. 

He could feel his eyes slide closed of their own accord, his shoulders relaxing. He dropped his chin. He hadn’t even noticed the background hum until it disappeared. “And now?” Eric asked, close enough to Jeff’s ear that he must have leaned down.

“Be-tter,” Jeff stuttered out, distracted by the feel of Eric’s hands on him, on bare skin when normally they had at least two layers of hockey equipment or workout gear between them. It felt _amazing_. He couldn’t help but let out a small sound of satisfaction.

Eric dropped his hands and the buzz came back, stronger than before. “I figured you were waiting until the season was over,” he said, but he sounded resigned as he returned to his seat and leaned back. “You didn’t say anything.”

Jeff still felt out of it from a minute ago and it took him a second to blink and get his head on straight, for the pieces to come together. When they finally did, he stared wide eyed at Eric, felt his face heat with belated embarrassment. 

All those times he’d thought he was just having rookie season nerves and Eric was just being a good captain and the whole time-- “We’re _bonding_?!”

In hindsight, Jeff will not be proud of the way his voice broke over the word. 

“Bonded,” Eric corrected mildly, but his expression was wry. “Pretty sure it’s not the kind of thing that’s reversible.” 

“But there wasn’t--” Jeff paused and thought about it. He hadn’t known, he’d just thought it was a crush, like any other. There had been no moment where it had just _clicked_ that it was Eric. None of the movies had ever talked about the static buzz he’d been feeling since he made it to Raleigh, that he’d mistaken for rookie nerves. “How long have you known?”

Eric scrubbed a hand through his bedhead. “Uh, January?” It sounded like a question. He must have seen something on Jeff’s face though, because he hurried to add, “ _Late_ January. After you signed your contract. I didn’t want to,” he paused, fingers tight on the edge of the table, “to put any extra pressure on you, okay? Management agreed.”

Management knew. That could explain why he’d been put on a line with Eric so quickly, why they’d clicked so well on the ice. Why Maurice had felt the need to check up on him about how he was settling into the team more than once. “My sisters are going to make fun of me so hard,” he said stupidly. “Like so, so hard.” 

Eric still looked tense, almost nervous. His fingers were still clenched tight to the wood of the table. 

“Are you okay with this?” Jeff asked slowly. “Only you seem kind of freaked out.” 

Jeff actually felt more settled with every passing moment, now that he knew. He could see stretching out ahead of them years of mornings a little like this one, with breakfast in Eric’s too big kitchen, and games pressed together on the bench between shifts, and lunch at the diner outside the PNC Arena. Next fall he’d drag Eric to the state fair and make him break his diet as many times as possible, and during the off-season they could split some time between Toronto and Thunder Bay. 

Eric dragged his hands down his face and managed a lopsided smile. “I thought you’d be mad,” he admitted. 

“I am,” Jeff said seriously, and felt just a tiny bit bad when Eric blanched. “I’ve had a thing for you since I got here and you were just so--” He made a frustrated noise, gesturing loosely at Eric. “And you’ve known since January and we haven’t even kissed yet. And you’re still sitting all the way over there,” he gestured at Eric, all of a metre away across the table, “and I don’t get why.” 

Eric’s smile grew wider the longer Jeff talked, his eyes crinkled at the edges as he finally stood and came back around to Jeff and tugged him up out of his seat with a hand settled solidly on his hip, fingers slipping under the edge of the t-shirt Jeff had borrowed to sleep in. 

“Just waiting for you to notice, really,” Eric drawled and then ducked his head down to fit their lips together. He just brushed their lips together at first, drifted almost, along the seam of Jeff’s mouth until it opened to him before dipping his tongue inside just to taste. 

It wasn’t like the movies made it out to be. It was better. Eric pressed close along Jeff’s front and pulled him in with both hands like he was afraid Jeff might try to leave, as if Jeff wanted to be anywhere else just then. His skin was practically singing with it, every nerve shouting _this! Finally!_ It was like some part of him had just been waiting to make the connection and the longer Eric’s mouth was on his the more he had a sense of Eric inside his head, a dizzying, disconcerting warping of reality for a moment, feeling everything from two sides at once. 

He knew how Eric felt, head ducked down to meet Jeff, how he felt greedily pleased and possessive of Jeff wearing his clothes, sleeping in them, standing in Eric’s kitchen mussed and sleepy and practically branded as belonging to Eric, even before he’d known it. 

He did his best to give back as good as he got, nibbled a little on Eric’s lower lip, traced it with his tongue and soaked up the groan Eric couldn’t hold back in response. Instead, Eric dipped his head down, nosed along Jeff’s jaw and down before he sucked what would definitely be an impressive hickey high on Jeff’s neck. 

Eric paused, just breathing hot into the curve of Jeff’s shoulder while Jeff dug his fingers into Eric’s shirt, trying to keep hold. “They told me I should be sure,” Eric muttered and rubbed his nose back up to the hinge of Jeff’s jaw. “Like I didn’t know if it was real.” 

It took a second for Jeff to realize Eric must have meant management, his brain foggy from the way Eric has returned to his work on Jeff’s neck. 

“It’s real,” Jeff replied, hazily, tilting his head back to give Eric better access. “It’s not just your magic couch.” He let Eric continue to suck and bite for a moment longer, reveling, before he pulled his head back up to kiss him again with pent up emotion. 

“You’re not sleeping on that couch again,” Eric said, sounding mullish. His expression when Jeff pulled back enough to see it matched his tone. “Borrowing my clothes and then sleeping down here.” He sounded offended. 

“Upstairs?” Jeff asked. “We’ll have to share.” 

“I’ll give you a drawer and everything,” Eric agreed. 

And he did.

***

“Sorry, it took you _how long_ to notice?” Andrea asked, crackling a little over his crummy long distance plan.

“A few months,” Jeff muttered, heading down the hall away from the locker room.

She laughed at him. “Called it,” she said. 

“You did not!”

“I did,” she said, smugly, and Jeff could just imagine her leaning back in her office chair. “I called it when you were eight.”

“That doesn’t count!” Jeff protested, but there was really no winning an argument with Andrea, ever. The halls were mostly empty since it wasn’t a game day.

She hummed a little. “We watched that movie, the one with the people who fell in love at first sight and then couldn’t find each other? You were practically taking notes even though we told you it was just a romcom.” 

It was embarrassing, looking back and knowing that she was completely right. 

Eric found him then, near the exit and wrapped his arms around his chest, rubbed his cheek against Jeff’s. “Tell Andrea I say hello and goodbye” he said, content to just stay like that, nuzzling into Jeff’s neck even as the door to the offices opened and Maurice waved at them on his way out. He stole a kiss when Jeff turned to look at him, and looked pleased about it.

“Hello to Eric, too,” Andrea said, clearly having heard him. “Don’t forget to visit this summer. And call mom!” She hung up on him without saying goodbye. Typical Andrea. 

Jeff slipped the phone into his back pocket and turned to kiss Eric properly. “Ready to go home?” he asked, but he knew the answer, could feel it along their connection and see it in the way Eric’s eyes went dark and distracted as he pulled Jeff in for another kiss, and another. 

Eventually Jeff managed to pull back, laughing a little, and grab Eric by the hand to pull him towards the parking lot. “Home,” he reiterated. “I’ll even borrow one of your shirts again.” 

“Deal,” Eric agreed and Jeff could feel his smugness down the line between them. It was nothing like the movies, but it was exactly what he’d been looking for.


End file.
